Philip Testa
Encyclopedia
Philip Carlo Testa also known as "The Chicken Man" or "The Julius Cesar of the Philadelphia Mob" or "Philly", was a Sicilian
-born American Mafia
figure known for his brief leadership of the Scarfo crime family. Testa became boss after popular former boss Angelo Bruno
was murdered by his own consiglieri Antonio Caponigro
who, in turn, was ordered killed by The Commission
for acting without permission. About a year after Bruno's death, Testa was killed by the blast of a nail bomb allegedly ordered by his underboss Pete Casella. According to the Philadelphia press that event marked the beginning of the four-year Philadelphia Mafia War that led to 30 mobsters being killed.
Testa's nickname came from his involvement in a poultry
business.
, Sicily
and emigrated to New York City
, eventually settling in South Philadelphia
with his family in his teenage years. In South Philadelphia he met and befriended future mob boss Angelo Bruno
. He later married an Italian-American immigrant woman only identified as Alfia and moved into the prominently Italian neighborhood Bella Vista, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. In early police dossiers on Testa, he was identified by law enforcement as not having a legitimate source of income and was solely dependent from winnings as a "common gambler". He saw himself as a Roman general and statesman
like Julius Caesar
in the world of organized crime.
In his native Mistretta, Testa was a Mandamento
and was rumored to have belonged to the Sicilian Mafia Commission
before traveling to America.
He was a dour-looking man with a pockmarked face that stood at 5 foot 8 inches and weighed 183 pounds with brown hair and eyes, and was well built. He reportedly had dark emotionless eyes and gave off the appearance of a great white shark
with a bulbous nose and scowl that made press photographers back away from him. His pockmarked face is thought to be one of the reasons behind his nickname, as the pockmarks are believed to have been caused by a horrible case of chicken pox with the scars never fully healing. Testa sported a thick mustache despite Mafia code stating that members could not sport mustaches. He wore blue-collar clothing, giving off the appearance of a "badly dressed plumber than an old world don", as one associate would describe him. He fathered a daughter, Maria.
At the age of 32, Testa became a father to his only son, Salvatore Testa
born in 1956 in Bella Vista. He was a staunch Roman Catholic and raised his son in the same fashion. He remained loyal to his wife and did not have a mistress, like many other mobsters and did not drink heavily. Out of his two children he remained very close to Salvatore, even when he became older and moved out on his own.
His son Salvatore was described by associates and the press as better looking than his father Testa, crime reporter George Anastasia describes his son Salvatore as, "a ruggedly handsome 210-pound man who stood 6 feet tall with hazel eyes and real long lashes and dimpled cheeks. He wore his wavy hair out over his ears in typical 1970s fashion and was known to wear track suits and double breasted suits."
managed by his daughter Maria of which Salvatore was a part owner of the lease. Virgil (The Blade) Mariutti, who was a close friend of Salvatore Testa’s, managed Philip Testa’s restaurant during part of the time that Testa owned it. Testa named the restaurant after Mariutti. Frank Monte, a fellow capo in the Scarfo family worked as a bartender at the restaurant. It was out of this restaurant that he operated his legitimate and illegitimate business enterprises. Testa chose to have Nicky Scarfo Sr. and his second wife Domencia as his son's godparents shortly after he was born at St. Paul's Catholic Church, the same church he would later have his funeral and later where Salvatore himself would be interred. He schooled his son in the 'old ways of the mob' with traditions of the Sicilian Mafia embraced in Sicily that he taught his son Salvatore to embrace.
After murdered Frank (Chickie) Narducci Sr., the mobster that orchestrated his father's death and headed the coup of the Scarfo crime family, Nicholas Caramandi said, "Salvie used to say to me, 'I wish that motherfucker was alive so I could kill him again.' This is how much he hated this man. He had no mercy on anybody. Business was business, and killing to him was business." Philadelphia Inquirer reporter George Anastasia wrote, "Salvatore Testa loved it all, the stalkings, the murders, even the Enrico Riccobene suicide. He was the South Philadelphia equivalent of a Main Line blue blood. He was born to be a wiseguy." Mobster-turned-informant Nicholas Caramandi spoke about Salvatore's upbringing by his father and his son Salvatore's brief courtship of Maria Merlino, the daughter of Salvatore Merlino, Nicky Scarfo's underboss and Testa's godfather,
When Philip was murdered Salvatore was very angered and personally hunted down and sought to seek out revenge on his father's murderers. Exactly one year after his father's bombing, Rocco Marinucci, the man who waited outside their household and detonated the bomb, was found in a parking lot in South Philadelphia
, with cherry bombs from Salvatore stuffed down his throat and shot to death. He also wanted to personally shoot Frank Narducci Sr. for his involvement and waited so that he could see Narducci's expression on his face, before pulling the trigger. Philip's wife of over twenty-five years Alfia died of natural causes in 1980, in that same year, in March, longtime family boss Angelo Bruno
would be murdered, and Testa's father became boss of the family. He was known to wear, on occasion, ten-gallon cowboy hat
s and cowboy boot
s, which his son Salvatore would later adopt into his own fashion wardrobe. His son and apparent successor to his criminal empire was Salvatore Testa was twenty-five years old when Philip was murdered in a bomb blast at his family's home located at 2117 Porter Street in South Philadelphia. When Philip died he left his son an estate worth $800,000 that included a run-down bar in Atlantic City on a site where Donald Trump
decided to build the Trump Plaza (Atlantic City)
. Trump paid Testa $1.1 million for the right to tear the bar down.
that was across the street from the scenic Stephen Girard Park
. As he was opening the door to his row house, a nail bomb exploded under his front porch. The house was ravaged and witnesses claimed that pieces of Testa's body were scattered blocks away. Phil Testa was often considered a mindless brute by law enforcement, but saw himself as the next 'Julius Caesar of the Mob'. He was rushed to St. Agnes Medical Centre in Point Breeze, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
but died of internal bleeding. On the night of Testa's wake, Nicky Scarfo and Salvatore Merlino were summoned to a meeting at the Buckeye Club, a private social club in South Philadelphia where consigliere Peter Casella and Frank Narducci Sr. based their operations out of following the murder of Testa. He had one daughter who managed a Center City, Philadelphia nightclub and restaurant. Their father was promoted to underboss after Ignazio Danaro, died of old age, in turn Phil promoted drug trafficker Peter Casella to fill his role as underboss. Bruno's death triggered a violent civil war in the family between factions loyal to Harry Riccobene and Nicodemo Scarfo, who controlled the family's Atlantic City, New Jersey operations. Testa's killing spawned a string of intra-family wars that lasted until 1995. Testa's son, Salvatore Testa, became a rising star in the Philadelphia family. A few months after Testa's death, Scarfo made Salvatore a caporegime
. Three years later Salvatore was murdered by close friend Joey Pungitore on orders from Nicky Scarfo. Scarfo, despite being Salvatore's godfather at birth, began to feel threatened by the young capo's popularity in the family and was jealous of an article in the Wall Street Journal that noted Salvatore as a rich, young rising star within the Cosa Nostra
underworld.
's US hit song, "Atlantic City
". The song opens with the following line,
"Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night/Now they blew up his house too".
The song depicts a young couple's romantic escape to the New Jersey city Atlantic City, but also wrestles with the inevitability of death as the man in the relationship intends to take a job in organized crime once arriving in the city. The opening lines of "Atlantic City" refer to Mafia violence in nearby Philadelphia, with Springsteen singing: "Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night, now they blew up his house too." The song also evokes the widespread uncertainty regarding gambling during its early years in Atlantic City and its promises to resurrect the city. This uncertainty and the man's uncertainty about taking the less-than-savory job are echoed in the lyrics "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back."
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
-born American Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
figure known for his brief leadership of the Scarfo crime family. Testa became boss after popular former boss Angelo Bruno
Angelo Bruno
Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno was a Sicilian-American mobster who ran the Philadelphia crime family for two decades. Bruno gained his nickname and reputation due to his preference for conciliation over violence.-Early years:Born in Villalba, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his...
was murdered by his own consiglieri Antonio Caponigro
Antonio Caponigro
Antonio Rocco Caponigro , also known as Tony Bananas, was the consigliere of Angelo Bruno in the Bruno crime family. He is known for ending the peaceful Bruno regime by ordering his murder over a dispute concerning the methamphetamine trade.-Early life:Caponigro was born in Chicago, Illinois on...
who, in turn, was ordered killed by The Commission
The Commission
The Commission may refer to:*The Commission , the governing body of the Mafia in the United States*Sicilian Mafia Commission, governing body of the Mafia in Italy*European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union...
for acting without permission. About a year after Bruno's death, Testa was killed by the blast of a nail bomb allegedly ordered by his underboss Pete Casella. According to the Philadelphia press that event marked the beginning of the four-year Philadelphia Mafia War that led to 30 mobsters being killed.
Testa's nickname came from his involvement in a poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
business.
Early life and family life
Testa was born in MistrettaMistretta
Mistretta is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 90 km east of Palermo and about 110 km west of Messina...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
and emigrated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, eventually settling in South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...
with his family in his teenage years. In South Philadelphia he met and befriended future mob boss Angelo Bruno
Angelo Bruno
Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno was a Sicilian-American mobster who ran the Philadelphia crime family for two decades. Bruno gained his nickname and reputation due to his preference for conciliation over violence.-Early years:Born in Villalba, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his...
. He later married an Italian-American immigrant woman only identified as Alfia and moved into the prominently Italian neighborhood Bella Vista, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bella Vista, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bella Vista, Italian for "beautiful sight", is a neighborhood in the South Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.It is bounded by 6th Street, 11th Street, South Street, and Washington Avenue....
. In early police dossiers on Testa, he was identified by law enforcement as not having a legitimate source of income and was solely dependent from winnings as a "common gambler". He saw himself as a Roman general and statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
like Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
in the world of organized crime.
In his native Mistretta, Testa was a Mandamento
Mandamento
Historically a mandamento was the part of Italian territory under the jurisdiction of a "pretore" which is a kind of magistrate. These divisions were abolished in 1923....
and was rumored to have belonged to the Sicilian Mafia Commission
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
before traveling to America.
He was a dour-looking man with a pockmarked face that stood at 5 foot 8 inches and weighed 183 pounds with brown hair and eyes, and was well built. He reportedly had dark emotionless eyes and gave off the appearance of a great white shark
Great white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
with a bulbous nose and scowl that made press photographers back away from him. His pockmarked face is thought to be one of the reasons behind his nickname, as the pockmarks are believed to have been caused by a horrible case of chicken pox with the scars never fully healing. Testa sported a thick mustache despite Mafia code stating that members could not sport mustaches. He wore blue-collar clothing, giving off the appearance of a "badly dressed plumber than an old world don", as one associate would describe him. He fathered a daughter, Maria.
At the age of 32, Testa became a father to his only son, Salvatore Testa
Salvatore Testa
Salvatore "Salvie" Testa, , nicknamed The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob, was a Philadelphia gangster who served as a hitman for the Scarfo crime family during a period of internal gang conflict...
born in 1956 in Bella Vista. He was a staunch Roman Catholic and raised his son in the same fashion. He remained loyal to his wife and did not have a mistress, like many other mobsters and did not drink heavily. Out of his two children he remained very close to Salvatore, even when he became older and moved out on his own.
His son Salvatore was described by associates and the press as better looking than his father Testa, crime reporter George Anastasia describes his son Salvatore as, "a ruggedly handsome 210-pound man who stood 6 feet tall with hazel eyes and real long lashes and dimpled cheeks. He wore his wavy hair out over his ears in typical 1970s fashion and was known to wear track suits and double breasted suits."
Members Testa inducted into family
On June 8, 1980 Phil Testa held a La Cosa Nostra initiation ceremony at the South Philadelphia home of mob captain John Cappello. At the ceremony, Phil inducted Scarfo's nephew Phil Leonetti, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, Robert (Bobby) Lumio, Joseph (Joe Punge) Pungitore, Salvatore (Wayne) Grande, Frank (Little Frankie) Narducci Jr., Anthony (Tony) Casella and his son, Salvatore.Criminal headquarters
Testa had an office in the back of what was the Bank Street Restaurant until he changed the name in 1979 or 1980 to 'Virgilio's' in Old City, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaOld City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Old City is a neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in the area near e Delaware River where William Penn and the Quakers first settled...
managed by his daughter Maria of which Salvatore was a part owner of the lease. Virgil (The Blade) Mariutti, who was a close friend of Salvatore Testa’s, managed Philip Testa’s restaurant during part of the time that Testa owned it. Testa named the restaurant after Mariutti. Frank Monte, a fellow capo in the Scarfo family worked as a bartender at the restaurant. It was out of this restaurant that he operated his legitimate and illegitimate business enterprises. Testa chose to have Nicky Scarfo Sr. and his second wife Domencia as his son's godparents shortly after he was born at St. Paul's Catholic Church, the same church he would later have his funeral and later where Salvatore himself would be interred. He schooled his son in the 'old ways of the mob' with traditions of the Sicilian Mafia embraced in Sicily that he taught his son Salvatore to embrace.
Relationship with Salvie
His son Salvatore had a close relationship with his father and became involved with him in the rackets of drug trafficking, loansharking and extortion.Salvie was all for 'this thing'. Knew it inside out. Knew it better than guys who were sixty years old and who'd been in it for forty years. Because of his father. He'd been a good teacher. Salvie had nerve and he didn't care who he killed. Sometimes we used to go [on a contract] and we'd come back and tell him, "Well, the kids were in the car, the family's in the car.' "I don't care whose in the car', he'd say. 'Everybody goes.' That's the kind of guy he was. One Thanksgiving Day he wanted us to go into Sonny [Mario] Riccobene's house where Robert Riccobene was havin' dinner with his family. 'Shoot everybody in the house'. But he and Charlie Iannece and Faffy [Francis Ianarella] made up some story that he didn't show up. Just to appease Salvie. 'Cause we didn't go for killing kids. It was something we drew a line with, but he (Testa) was just so full of venom that he didn't care. He was a guy made for 'this thing.' He loved it. He lived it. And he was very bitter about what happened to his father (Philip), about the way his father got killed, blown up with nails in him.
After murdered Frank (Chickie) Narducci Sr., the mobster that orchestrated his father's death and headed the coup of the Scarfo crime family, Nicholas Caramandi said, "Salvie used to say to me, 'I wish that motherfucker was alive so I could kill him again.' This is how much he hated this man. He had no mercy on anybody. Business was business, and killing to him was business." Philadelphia Inquirer reporter George Anastasia wrote, "Salvatore Testa loved it all, the stalkings, the murders, even the Enrico Riccobene suicide. He was the South Philadelphia equivalent of a Main Line blue blood. He was born to be a wiseguy." Mobster-turned-informant Nicholas Caramandi spoke about Salvatore's upbringing by his father and his son Salvatore's brief courtship of Maria Merlino, the daughter of Salvatore Merlino, Nicky Scarfo's underboss and Testa's godfather,
He (Salvatore) gets into a beef with Maria. She's telling him, "My father (Merlino) bought me all this jewelry", stuff like that… While they were waiting to get married, Maria's having the fucking house redone with French toilets and Jacuzzis. And even though it was sort a old fashioned, that's the way Salvie wanted to live. He wanted to live in his father's footsteps. He didn't like all this fancy stuff.
When Philip was murdered Salvatore was very angered and personally hunted down and sought to seek out revenge on his father's murderers. Exactly one year after his father's bombing, Rocco Marinucci, the man who waited outside their household and detonated the bomb, was found in a parking lot in South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...
, with cherry bombs from Salvatore stuffed down his throat and shot to death. He also wanted to personally shoot Frank Narducci Sr. for his involvement and waited so that he could see Narducci's expression on his face, before pulling the trigger. Philip's wife of over twenty-five years Alfia died of natural causes in 1980, in that same year, in March, longtime family boss Angelo Bruno
Angelo Bruno
Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno was a Sicilian-American mobster who ran the Philadelphia crime family for two decades. Bruno gained his nickname and reputation due to his preference for conciliation over violence.-Early years:Born in Villalba, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his...
would be murdered, and Testa's father became boss of the family. He was known to wear, on occasion, ten-gallon cowboy hat
Cowboy hat
The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the western and southern United States, western Canada and northern Mexico, with...
s and cowboy boot
Cowboy boot
Cowboy boots refer to a specific style of riding boot, historically worn by cowboys. They have a Cuban heel, rounded to pointed toe, high shaft, and, traditionally, no lacing...
s, which his son Salvatore would later adopt into his own fashion wardrobe. His son and apparent successor to his criminal empire was Salvatore Testa was twenty-five years old when Philip was murdered in a bomb blast at his family's home located at 2117 Porter Street in South Philadelphia. When Philip died he left his son an estate worth $800,000 that included a run-down bar in Atlantic City on a site where Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
decided to build the Trump Plaza (Atlantic City)
Trump Plaza (Atlantic City)
Trump Plaza is a hotel and casino located on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr., it was opened in 1984 and is one of two casinos owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts...
. Trump paid Testa $1.1 million for the right to tear the bar down.
Bombing
One month before Testa was murdered, he, Frank Narducci Sr., Harold and Mario Riccobene, Pasquale Spirito, Joseph Ciancaglini, and several associates were indicted in a federal racketeering case that centred on gambling and loansharking operations run by the mob. The case was based on an investigation called Operation Gangplank and was one of the first built on the RICO Act by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. On March 15, 1981, Testa returned to his home in South PhiladelphiaSouth Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...
that was across the street from the scenic Stephen Girard Park
Stephen Girard Park
Stephen Girard Park is a park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the South Philadelphia neighborhood at 21st and Shunk Streets. It is maintained by the City of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park Commission. The park was established in 1953 on land donated by Stephen Girard, and includes a house formerly...
. As he was opening the door to his row house, a nail bomb exploded under his front porch. The house was ravaged and witnesses claimed that pieces of Testa's body were scattered blocks away. Phil Testa was often considered a mindless brute by law enforcement, but saw himself as the next 'Julius Caesar of the Mob'. He was rushed to St. Agnes Medical Centre in Point Breeze, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Point Breeze, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Point Breeze is a neighborhood in the South Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is generally bound by 25th Street to the west, Washington Avenue to the north, Broad Street to the east, and Mifflin Street to the south, although the sections between 18th Street and...
but died of internal bleeding. On the night of Testa's wake, Nicky Scarfo and Salvatore Merlino were summoned to a meeting at the Buckeye Club, a private social club in South Philadelphia where consigliere Peter Casella and Frank Narducci Sr. based their operations out of following the murder of Testa. He had one daughter who managed a Center City, Philadelphia nightclub and restaurant. Their father was promoted to underboss after Ignazio Danaro, died of old age, in turn Phil promoted drug trafficker Peter Casella to fill his role as underboss. Bruno's death triggered a violent civil war in the family between factions loyal to Harry Riccobene and Nicodemo Scarfo, who controlled the family's Atlantic City, New Jersey operations. Testa's killing spawned a string of intra-family wars that lasted until 1995. Testa's son, Salvatore Testa, became a rising star in the Philadelphia family. A few months after Testa's death, Scarfo made Salvatore a caporegime
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...
. Three years later Salvatore was murdered by close friend Joey Pungitore on orders from Nicky Scarfo. Scarfo, despite being Salvatore's godfather at birth, began to feel threatened by the young capo's popularity in the family and was jealous of an article in the Wall Street Journal that noted Salvatore as a rich, young rising star within the Cosa Nostra
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
underworld.
In popular culture
Testa's violent death inspired the first line of musician Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's US hit song, "Atlantic City
Atlantic City (song)
"Atlantic City" is a song written and recorded by rock musician Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on Springsteen's 1982 solo album Nebraska, considered to be one of Springsteen's most dour albums in tone...
". The song opens with the following line,
"Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night/Now they blew up his house too".
The song depicts a young couple's romantic escape to the New Jersey city Atlantic City, but also wrestles with the inevitability of death as the man in the relationship intends to take a job in organized crime once arriving in the city. The opening lines of "Atlantic City" refer to Mafia violence in nearby Philadelphia, with Springsteen singing: "Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night, now they blew up his house too." The song also evokes the widespread uncertainty regarding gambling during its early years in Atlantic City and its promises to resurrect the city. This uncertainty and the man's uncertainty about taking the less-than-savory job are echoed in the lyrics "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back."
Further reading
Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob - The Mafia's Most Violent Family by George Anastasia, 2004, ISBN 0-9410159-86-4External links
- Philip "Chickenman" Testa at Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...